


L is for Laryn

by chileancarmenere



Series: Alistair Alphabet [12]
Category: Dragon Age
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-05
Updated: 2012-02-05
Packaged: 2017-10-30 16:29:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/333737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chileancarmenere/pseuds/chileancarmenere





	L is for Laryn

The sight of the monster alone is enough to make Alistair gag in horror. The broodmother flails its tentacles, shrieking and squelching. A smell of rotting flesh pervades the air, with a sickeningly sweet edge.

It slaps the ground in front of them, and with the impact, they all awaken from their dazed shock. Oghren bellows incoherently and dashes straight at the heaving body of the broodmother, swinging his axe up high to bury it in her flesh. Kaillian dodges to one side, sneaking around to attack from the sides. Wynne casts several protective spells, and armored with magic sparking on his skin, Alistair runs for the nearest tentacle, chopping it neatly in half. The fight is long and difficult; the broodmother summons her dark young to attack them, and they exhaust their entire store of lyrium potions. Finally, Kaillian, smeared in darkspawn blood and sweat, leaps awkwardly from a rock ledge onto the broodmother’s shoulders, and slices both her blades deep into the broodmother’s neck. The monster thrashes around in its death throes, and Alistair charges forwards to catch Kaillian should she fall, his heart in his mouth. With one last scream, the broodmother dies, a foul black ooze seeping out of her.

Oghren shudders. “Ach, I’ve never seen a thing like that before. What a horrible way to go.”

That night they camp in a cave off the main road, with Kaillian taking first watch. Just like every other night in the Deep Roads, Alistair can’t sleep. The effect of the taint is too much down here; he can feel a slow thrumming through his entire body, compelling him further and further down. When he closes his eyes to sleep, the archdemon screams through his nightmares. After a couple of hours tossing and turning on the cold rocks, he gives it up as useless and goes to join Kaillian.

She is curled into her blankets, but shuddering even so. He settles next to her and wraps an arm around her shoulders, drawing her in to his chest in an effort to make her feel warm and safe. She snuggles in without a word, clinging to him as though he were the only thing that could save her.

Soon enough, the front of his shirt begins to feel wet. He brushes a hand along her cheeks, and finds tears.

“Oh, Kaillian…”

“She had a _name_ ,” Kaillian whispers, her voice hoarse and low. “She ate bread and butter. She was tainted, just like me.”

“No…”

“Just like me.”

“No.” Alistair cannot deny it, but he has to. If he accepts that the dwarf and his fellow Warden were both tainted, he has to accept too that Kaillian might end her days here, in the Deep Roads like him, but after becoming a tainted mother to the offspring of a dark god.

“It’s true,” she says, hitching on a sob. She rubs her face dry against his shirt, then sits up and takes his face between her hands. “Alistair, I need you to promise me something.”

He knows what’s coming. He can read the question in her eyes. “Kaillian, I can’t. I can’t.”

“Please.” Her eyes are tearstained and reddened and pleading, and despite himself, he listens. “I can’t ever, ever become like that. I don’t ever want to end like that. When the…when the Calling comes, we come down here together, and if, if I start to become like that, you have to end it for me. You have to promise me that.”

He wants to look away but she holds him too firmly. “Kal, I can’t kill you.”

“If it comes to that, it won’t be me any more, Alistair.”

He can’t deny that. Alistair bites his lip. He should not be so selfish; there is no worse fate for her. Love is about sacrifice. The highest calling anyone can have is to serve others.

“I promise.” He shudders as he says the ghastly words.

She hugs him, holding him long and tight. They take what comfort they can from the other’s touch.


End file.
